Homeworld for Wayward Space Dwarfs

Devoted to the Preservation, Collection, Conversion, Painting, and Resurrection of Space Dwarfs.Beards for the Beard God!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fixing a Hole in the Hungry Ghosts Squadrons

Part 1 of the new Hungry Ghosts painting campaign is to fill in the gaps in the existing squads to give them all the bonus mascots, banner-bearers, corpses, and tombstones.

Legios Moriad XIV Command Squad

The Hungry Ghosts Command Squad was already largely complete, but had no official corpse. This was fixed by adding the Vaporized Troubleshooter miniature from the Paranoia range.

The Vaporized Troobleshooter is a small miniature, so it was given some additional bulk by gluing it first to a GorkaMorka base, and gluing that GorkaMorka base to a WFB small square base. This gave some space to add detail to the pile of rubble. The computer and lasgun muzzle were already part of the mini, so more dead trooper was added in the form of the pelvis and partial legs of one of the Skeletons from the Skeleton Horde set.

On the right side, we can see the boot and strap molded to the mini. Another slice of bloody leg was added under the computer, and assorted metallic bits were mixed in with the usual black gravel added to the base.

Iron Claws Special Weapons

Another small couple of jobs for the Iron Claws Special Weapons Squad from the Rotted Hearth Infantry Platoon. As with the Black Stars Special Weapons Squad, the Iron Claws were joined by one of the Necromunda Giant Mutant Rats. This rat was painted with an orange-brown pelt to blend with the bright colors used for the Iron Claws troopers.

The Iron Claws also needed a Tombstone. Theirs was made more battered and blasted than most, evidence of the combat that resulted in the many dead Space Marines bits on the Squats' bases (which count as the Corpse for the Iron Claws.

The Underdeepers Banner-Bearer

The Underdeepers Infantry Squad from the Rotted Hearth Platoon was also already mostly complete, but had no Banner-Bearer. This was fixed by providing a Dark Eldar Raider banner bit to Trooper Eeg Niner, The banner was painted in a typical scheme for the Hungry Ghosts of red and Beaten Copper, bearing the Legios Moriad regimental number XIV.

The banner was made pleasing to the Skull God with the addition of a Skaven Stormvermin Skull standard top.

From the back, we can see that the banner has been planted in the base of Eeg Niner rather than directly attached to him. Didn't feel like breaking out the green stuff.

Dwarf Questions from Dad

HG's Dad: I thought the Dwarves were mostly preindustrial?

HG: You are listening to Elf-Lies. Many Dwarfs are preindustrial, but those Dwarfs are found on worlds where everyone is preindustrial, and even in these settings they tend to be the most technologically advanced critters on the planet. Space Dwarfs, on the other hand, are clearly post-industrial by their name, and created many of the variants of the Imperial Guard tanks in the picture you have down there.

Whether there are more Space Dwarfs than Dwarfs is a complex question, as modern physics would say there are an infinite number of each, and then go on to explain that there is a different kind of infinity to address the "infinity+infinity = 2 infinity?" problem, and we would all be confused as a monkey with a bowl of wax grapes.

Followers of the Moriad

HUNGRY GHOSTS: The Bones Beneath The Beards

The Legios Moriad XIV Regiment was assembled as an elite expeditionary force composed of troops from the League of Moriad, nine heavy gravity homeworlds near the edgeward borders of the Squat regions. Sent to investigate rumors of exotic mineral resources to be found on the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, they instead discovered horrors from beyond the stars and from within their minds.

Rather than rich worlds awaiting the construction of mighty forgespires and deepest delvings, empty husks of pitted rock awaited. These grim discoveries drew the Moriad along the trail of wrecked worlds toward temptation. How efficient must be those who stripped these worlds, how mighty the machines and how wondrous the technologies, how surely these technologies would be shared with the Squats.

These were the thoughts the Squat commanders could not put to rest, thoughts that pounded ever louder as they pursued those who destroyed worlds. Their thirst for mechanical lore led them beyond the limits of the Astronomicon's flickers and into the maw of the Behemoth, the first fleet of the extragalatic Tyranid to drink from the Milky Way.

The Moriad were soon desperate for survival in the pincers of an advanced biotechnology that they struggled to comprehend and could not defeat. The mind of the expeditionary force commander, Gen Jengiz Stalkarlik, turned grimly toward the thoughts that had spurred the Moriad to chase the Tyranid fleet. Where the sane would have turned away, Gen Stalkarlik and his Moriad embraced their dark cravings and followed them to their source.

Some believe the Moriad were tainted from the start, others that they broke psychically from the emptiness of the edges of the galaxy in contrast to the snug corridors of their homeworlds. Whether driven by desire or desperation,* the Squat warriors called upon Lord Khorne, the dark god of blood and machines to save them from the Behemoth Tyranids. Mighty Khorne granted the Moriad their wish, in a fashion.

In the end, entirety of the Legios Moriad Expeditionary Force was slain by the Tyranid. As each soldier died, though, Khorne transported his corpse from the battlefield. Each awoke to undeath, refashioned by Khorne’s whims and the random chaos of their warpspace journey. All awoke in the Maelstrom, upon a blood red garnet the size of a planetoid, conveniently orbitted by a Chaos-corrupted spacecraft.

Ever restless, the Moriad soon forayed from the Maelstrom. Khorne provided them with weapons and minerals in the form of a Squat reconnaissance outpost to devour. It was here that they discovered their hunger for flesh could never be sated, though they could never starve. After futile feeding on the bodies of their brothers, the Moriad left the garnet planetoid and the Maelstrom to continue their eternal quest for new flesh and machines to consume.

Through centuries of unlife the Legios Moriad, rebaptised as The Hungry Ghosts, have collected a strange variety of weaponry and cybernetics dedicated to destruction in the name of Chaos. Some have become more machine than flesh, but none have found rest.

*In fact, Chaos had levered the smallest among them to speed them to doom. The Moriad were accompanied by a gaggle of Ratling cooks, as the only artful cuisine among the Squats is entirely alcoholic or geologic. Following one of the few paths to Khorne that Ratlings may find, the mission's head chef came already possessed of unholy hankerings for raw meats of allkinds. Soon the hallucinogenic poisons he mixed into every meal made the Squats keenly receptive to Khorne’s daemonic gibberings from the warp, and their common greed inflated into undying treason.

All original content contain in the Hungry Ghosts blog is copyrighted by James W Polichak, 2010-2011.Hungry Ghosts, Moriad, and the names of any character, vehicle, or unit are trademarks and copyrighted by James W Polichak.No claim is made upon any content produced by other authors that is discussed in this work, nor any terms or names that are trademarked by other authors.No claim is made concerning any content owned by Games Workshop, and any such content is used for artistic, historical, or reference purposes.